QUICK REVIEW: The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists

This was my first experience of Alexander McCall Smith's work and certainly not the last. The Strange Case of the Moderate Extremists is an amusing, witty story that is hard to strictly assort in just one genre, as it falls under a variety of different categories, such as crime fiction, comedy, and literary fiction. Ulf Varg is one well-outlined main character who works as a police officer in the Department of Sensitive Crimes in Stockholm. The cases that he, along with his small team of colleagues, takes sometimes seem bizarre and implausible but the point of this short story is not its plot intricacy and strength but the compelling prose of the Scottish author. You will laugh but also ponder on crucial personal and social issues, and above all you will be genuinely entertained by this little gem of a novella. Alexander McCall Smith was added to the -many- writers that I want to further study and I can recommend it without any reservation to anyone, even to those who are not vehement fans of the crime fiction genre. 5/5 stars!